The mediating effect of self-control in the relationship between alexithymia and internet addiction among college students / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the mediating role of self-control in the relationship between alexithymia and internet addiction.Methods:From August to September 2019, a total of 433 college students were selected from three universities in Jiangxi province by cluster random sampling method. The Chinese internet addiction scale-revised, the twenty-item Toronto alexithymia scale and brief self-control scale were used for questionnaire testing. SPSS 23.0 software was used for descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and PROCESS V3.5 macro program was used to test the mediating effect.Results:The total scores of alexithymia, internet addiction and self-control were (53.61±9.44), (45.31±9.84) and (41.91±6.09), respectively. Pearson correlation analysis showed that alexithymia was significantly positively correlated with internet addiction ( r=0.47, P<0.01), and significantly negatively correlated with self-control ( r=-0.37, P<0.01). The negative correlation between self-control and internet addiction was significant ( r=-0.46, P<0.01). Multivariate hierarchical regression analysis showed that alexithymia directly predicted internet addiction after controlling the influence of gender. Self-control played a partially mediating role in the relationship between alexithymia and internet addiction (effect size=0.13, 95% CI 0.082-0.185), the mediating effect accounted for 25% of the total effect. Conclusion:Alexithymia not only directly affects college students′ internet addiction, but also indirectly affects college students′ internet addiction through self-control.